I'm actually taking Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Design with Prof. Klemmer and Design and Analysis of Algorithms with Prof. Roughgarden. Interesting to see the videos of them teaching the exact courses from last year.
OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University
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Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University
#62It seems that there is a digital divide between universities that "get it", and universities that don't. I applaud universities like MIT and Stanford for opening up education for everyone. Other universities, like NC State and Georgia Tech, give platitudes about equal access to education for all but then fail to deliver. At the end of the day, this is because online education for them is not about equality, but rathe…
For what it's worth, Stanford only actually half-gets it. The videos you find online are only a tiny fraction (probably less than 20% of all videos recorded). Stanford also has SCPD which is a program wherein non-students can [pay and] take classes remotely via watching the on-campus lectures on video. Since students can also access these videos, you can make it through much of college without attending class. (There's also a lot of scraping at the end of each quarter so that students can maintain their own OpenCourseware equivalent).
Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University
#63This is not a comprehensive list of Stanford free course offerings. For example, it misses the Stanford EE Computer Systems Colloquium (EE380), http://ee380.stanford.edu. The website has archive of videos going back to Fall 1996.
EE380 is a colloquium not a course, but many of the videos will be of interest to HN readers. In addition to the archived talks, which can be viewed on-demand, it's possible to watch the current (W4:15-5:30 Pacific) in a real time webcast or attend live in person. A significant number of “not students” attend live because there’s always something that the camera misses and because you can ask questions.
The talk this week (Oct 19, 2011) is Professor John P. Weyant, MS&E, Stanford speaking on Integrated Assessment of Climate Change: dealing with massive Complexity and Uncertainty.
Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I love this model where you can effectively educate yourself for free, or train for a certification without paying. Then you can Suntzu it (as it were) and only pay to take exams for a course you know you'll pass.
Allow me to highlight that this works for certifications and not degrees. For an actual degree, you'll still need to pay through the nose, meet attendance requirements, and complete coursework before you may sit for the exam.
I've done home based learning at degree level with the Open University in the UK (they're a degree awarding body). It's possible to not have any contact throughout the course and just turn up and sit the exam. Tutorial sessions are not compulsory though many (possibly all, I don't know) courses have a continuous assessment element.
I wouldn't describe the fees then as 'paying through the nose', certainly not in comparison to professional IT certifications.
Re: OpenClassroom: Free video courses from Stanford University
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. 1-on-1 teaching seems to be very useful to many students especially for math. $20/hr. math tutors fill the tables at my local public library.
> $20/hr. math tutors fill the tables at my local public library. // Do you mean your libraries have classrooms for private tuition? I'm not familiar with this sort of thing. In my country private tuition happens at the tutor or students house.
Nope, we have tables that fill the open spaces. These are first come, first served are available for tutors, project works or studying, or just general reading space.